The Living World in Guild Wars 2 is ArenaNet's official term for changes to the game intended to bring the world of Guild Wars 2 to life. Each major game update includes NPCs, events, and sometimes new instances that tell the story of Tyria's ongoing evolution.

So, I am opening this thread to get some feedback on what you as a content designer would deliver as a living story. Be creative, stay positive and thro some of your ideas in the pot.

Here is mine:

These are the steps I would have taken as a content designer to deliver living stories:

I will start by identifying the areas that ANET has plans for opening up and build a plot that will take players to those areas according to the pre-established internal schedule for the release. I will create characters, establish connections and give all the important characters a story arc to take the players on a journey thru the living world with those characters. I'll keep the story arcs open and in-pace with internal content release schedule but based on lore that'd have brought back some nostalgic feelings and created some fresh new characters with rich details to take the story forward. I think it is necessary to make that bridge otherwise, things may feel disjointed.

For each story arc, I'll create a hook that'll involve useful ingame rewards with interesting elements for lore-lovers. For certain arcs, I'd probably look for some twists in the plot to keep players engaged in the story and for some story lines I'd include missions similar to the ones ANET created for Guild Wars Beyond. One way I will bring permanent changes to the world is by developing the character of the main NPCs in the each story arc and giving them permanent spots in the world where some of the ingame activities will revolve around them. This is an easy way to bring permanency utilizing dynamic events mechanism.

As more and more story arcs get opened, I will start consolidating the storylines again based on the internal release schedule. At the closure of each arc, I'd reward players based on their participation. I'll divide the storyline activities into low, medium and high difficulties with more content to low and medium while providing small but, unique and noteworthy reward for completing high difficulty ones. I'll create personalized scripts for NPCs to recognize each player's contribution to the story. The NPC will tell stories of the players who are among top contributors. By completing these storylines, players will earn the right to carry legendaries that'd be personalized just for them. These weapons will be the player's signature on the fate of the world. Instead of spewing out useless reptitive banter, I'll try to engage NPC into a meaningful discussion with the players where the NPC may give clues to future living stories or interesting upcoming changes in the game world.

tl;dr: My primary focus will be to take the current lore and expand it into multiple story segments that a player can witness develop and bring forth a meaningful conclusion to the journey where the player can thank oneself for taking part. I'd not slice and dice living stories to give away rewards or turn it into a checklist but, I'll reward my players for their contribution thru rich stories, developed characters, personlized items, genorous loots.

I would like it if the primary focus stays on the main storyline. The Living Story would serve to provide background information, origin stories and retelling of historical events. They would be permanent and made relevant by giving you a small edge - in whatever sense - to tackle new content related to the main storyline. Living Story could then also serve as a vehicle to show the impact of the main storyline on the world. The temporary nature would actually be justified in that, because in the end everything shall be rebuilt and remade. Protection and rebuilding are activities you can involve players in, and would actually create a sense of worth. Think of Living Stories as bolt-on content packages and grand scale dynamic events. As opposed to glorified holiday events that hold no significance.

I would like it if the primary focus stays on the main storyline. The Living Story would serve to provide background information, origin stories and retelling of historical events. They would be permanent and made relevant by giving you a small edge - in whatever sense - to tackle new content related to the main storyline. Living Story could then also serve as a vehicle to show the impact of the main storyline on the world. The temporary nature would actually be justified in that, because in the end everything shall be rebuilt and remade. Protection and rebuilding are activities you can involve players in, and would actually create a sense of worth. Think of Living Stories as bolt-on content packages and grand scale dynamic events. As opposed to glorified holiday events that hold no significance.

I actually like this idea, maybe do something with the 3 orders? living stories about what they are, how they formed and where they're gonna go seems pretty appealing to me

the problem with temporary content, however, is that they can't do anything that is continuous in nature, for fear that players miss out on certain ones and are unable to catch up with the rest.

Mine's a little more on the "what happens in the patch" side, rather then the "how I'd organize it" like yours is, but here it is:
I'd take the 4 living story teams and put them to work on one big set of updates, progressing over 4 patches in a 2 month period of time (roughly). For this example, I'll use Kralkatorik and the crystal desert, but any dragon/zone would work. The first patch would introduce a new map: the northern part of the crystal desert.

(patch 1)The story would start by meeting a central figure of an appropriate group (leader of the vigil, soldier from Ebonhawk, member of the black citadel/Rox, or whoever) who will then begin a major excursion into the crystal desert to deal with Kralkatoric, who has been more aggressive and posing a much more imminent threat recently. This would bring us to the northern part of the crystal desert, which would be sprinkled with some old lore related dynamic events, and some major event chains (perhaps Orr SoD style to split up the zergs) that progress us through the desert, establishing bases and encountering Kralkatoric's forces/corruption. To deliver the important story points outside of the inevitable crowd, living story instances would be used as per usual.

(patch 2) In the usual fashion, this patch would build upon the existing content from the previous patch. Some of the "flimsy" bases that were established through continually running dynamic event from the previous patch would become permanent with this patch (i.e. it's a base now, no more dynamic events to keep it active), and we'd progress further into the map through dynamic events trying to claim more footholds/camps/bases, eventually going up against one of Kralk's champions in a world boss event chain. Further living story instances included as well of course.

At this point, there might be a break in the story with a patch or two focused on something else for pacing reasons (let the zone become established, let the story sink in, and give it a longer sense of time. We don't want to bang out an ED too quickly).

(patch 3) At this point I'm not sure how feasibly this idea would be, as there are limits to how many artists Anet has and how fast they could put out an entire new map (another reason for the 'inbetween patch'). New maps also require a purpose(else they wind up like SSC), and stratify the player base, so I'm not sure releasing 2 new maps so close together would be wise. Assuming such limits aren't a factor, a second crystal desert map would be introduced, this one heavily corrupted by kralkatorik (whereas the last one would be relatively uncorrupted, staying true to it's previous image). There would be several dynamic event tied objectives on this map related to bringing down Kralkatorik (talking preparations here), and we'd receive our usual dose of living story instances to further the narrative in more personal areas.

(patch 4) And finally, here's the big one, a few different approaches could be taken for killing the ED, but for now I'll go with the simple dungeon idea. We get some more LS instances, and a few more dynamic events to tie what we were doing the previous patch into the dungeon, and then go on into a new dungeon focused around an epic (this time... unlike Zhaitan) battle with Kralkatorik, killing our second Elder Dragon.

All of these patches would be sprinkled with the usual addition of features, skins, etc. And as I mentioned before, Kralk/crystal desert was just an easy example for me to work with, this could be for any Elder Dragon/zone.

Remember the War in Kryta in GW1? Permament. You could start it when you wanted after you beat Prophecies so it still made sense. It was a world in a chronological order rather than this "living" world. I'd definitely add permanency.

Then I'd add a new area people WANT to see with a story that actually matters. I'd slowly open up the Crystal Desert and Glint's shrine and, for those that haven't read the books, a cinematic of what happened back then. A PROPER cinematic. Not this faded piece of scenery behind two people talking while some unseen event is going on that they're narrating.

If this was in my power as content designer, I'd hire more talented writers and get rid of the DnD fanfic writers ANet currently has under their employment. The reason for this is simple. In order for the game to be a veritable living world the world builders need to establish a strong and coherent internal logic. Just like how real world drama occurs due to the little nuances in our reality, events in an artificial "living world" need to be derived from and adhere to the nuances of its own reality. This won't just benefit the lore in terms of quality; I surmise that if the internal logic is strong enough the material should be able to write itself.

To be perfectly frank there's loads of potential material in the GW2 universe that's being brushed aside for Saturday morning cartoon villains and DnD fantasy heroes. The industrialization occurs between GW1 and GW2 is rife with potential material. What are the dangers of the Charr's race towards technological advancements. Not all of those machines they build can be safe to the environment or even the user. Don't machines scare away the animals the Norn like to hunt? Who benefits from industrialization for the matter? Not everyone can benefit from industrialization, or at least not immediately. There is bound to be conflicts just because of the industrialization and the authors probably wouldn't even need to contrive incoherent cartoon villains and DnD heroes to deliver content based one those conflicts.

If the design comes down to personal taste, I'd push for more store content derived in the way that I described and also limit updates to once a month in order to ensure quality. The content needs to be big enough satisfy, so while bits of content every two week might compel players to log in I'd prefer to give them one good well-portioned story arc every month. My eventual goal would be to populate maps with events that include memorable characters, each with something to teach the player about the world.

As for the structure of the content, I'd push for instances that can either be solo'd or done in groups. I'd also develop areas that need to change along with the story, but keep old versions "memory instances" for those not caught up. Rewards would be generic account bound weapon skins or, occasionally, something cool like emotes or alternate skill effects.

If this was in my power as content designer, I'd hire more talented writers and get rid of the DnD fanfic writers ANet currently has under their employment. The reason for this is simple. In order for the game to be a veritable living world the world builders need to establish a strong and coherent internal logic. Just like how real world drama occurs due to the little nuances in our reality, events in an artificial "living world" need to be derived from and adhere to the nuances of its own reality. This won't just benefit the lore in terms of quality; I surmise that if the internal logic is strong enough the material should be able to write itself.

To be perfectly frank there's loads of potential material in the GW2 universe that's being brushed aside for Saturday morning cartoon villains and DnD fantasy heroes. The industrialization occurs between GW1 and GW2 is rife with potential material. What are the dangers of the Charr's race towards technological advancements. Not all of those machines they build can be safe to the environment or even the user. Don't machines scare away the animals the Norn like to hunt? Who benefits from industrialization for the matter? Not everyone can benefit from industrialization, or at least not immediately. There is bound to be conflicts just because of the industrialization and the authors probably wouldn't even need to contrive incoherent cartoon villains and DnD heroes to deliver content based one those conflicts.

If the design down to personal taste, I'd push for more store content derived in the way that I described and also limit updates to once a month in order to ensure quality. The content needs to be big enough satisfy, so while bits of content every two week might compel players to log in I'd prefer to give them one good well-portioned story arc every month. My eventual goal would be to populate maps with events that include memorable characters, each with something to teach the player about the world.

As for the structure of the content, I'd push for instances that can either be solo'd or done in groups. I'd also develop areas that need to change along with the story, but keep old versions "memory instances" for those not caught up. Rewards would be generic account bound weapon skins or, occasionally, something cool like emotes or alternate skill effects.

Are they really the ones doing the writing for the LS? If so, the stuff they're churning is out is subpar at best. What should matter are their results, not how padded their resumes are. One important detail to this is that they're established professionals who are regularly putting out work at an amateur level. Not to sound cold, but that's even more reason to get rid of them and maybe hire some cheaper and less experienced who are not set in their (obviously flawed) ways.

Come to think of it, wasn't Bobby or Ree responsible for the universally loathed Trahearne?

Are they really the ones doing the writing for the LS? If so, the stuff they're churning is out is subpar at best. What should matter are their results, not how padded their resumes are. One important detail to this is that they're established professionals who are regularly putting out work at an amateur level. Not to sound cold, but that's even more reason to get rid of them and maybe hire some cheaper and less experienced who are not set in their (obviously flawed) ways.

Come to think of it, wasn't Bobby or Ree responsible for the universally loathed Trahearne?

That's all I could find on it, if there's another writer doing the story, I don't know who it is.
I don't want to turn this into a lengthy subjective discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the story and whether it was good or bad in an over all sense (especially in an unrelated thread), your post just struck me as falling into the natural reflex of people defaming things they don't like in order to objectify their views, so I looked up who was behind it and posted it as information. As it turns out, so far as I could find, the writers/story/lore people are the same as they've been since sometime (varying by the individual) in GW1, and Arena Net did not in fact hire random no namers(not that you said that, it's just the vibe I got) to write GW2's story.
If that's how you feel about the story, then your new view on these writers sounds fair to me.

First I would find the marketing droid at heart person who coined 'living story' and fire them on the spot.

Next I would kill off Traherne, and every single stupid Aetherblade NPC and that whole line of items. We already have a better retro-industrialization race, the Char with plenty of unrealized static machines that are begging to be brought to life. Hundreds of Charr war machines on multiple maps sit idle now. Bring them to life.

I would stop introducing new races and concentrate on developing the 5 already here beyond the mere sketches we have now.

Half of story in any MMO is geography, and we need new geograpy, new zones, now places and stuff to explore.

I would junk the whole living story and micro releases. I would change the direction from heading towards dumbing this down into a generalist compilation of mini-games with an MMO theme/world as the lobby and start heading back to the classic MMO roots.

I would stop introducing new characters at such a pace and instead expand on the ones we already have.

I would start releasing new personal story missions that continue after the current end one with Ziatan's death. I would up the rewards for them in a way that would encourage bringing friends and guildies along.

I would task a group to find some way to weave some meaning into WvW. Something like having to align yourself or world with a faction/race/land etc in Tyria and somehow connect your worlds performance with the outcomes in PVE Tyria.

I would task another group to do the same thing with svpv.

I would reward employees who come up with ideas that unify the gaming experience into one seamless immersive world and story.

My employees motto would be "Polish and Improve What exists".

I would require every single employee to level a new character every 3 months, with Iron man rules, no gold, no gems, only drops and no grouping with other employees.

First off I'd make sure that the LS teams work in conjunction with each other and have an over arcing storyline planned months ahead of time with some bits branching off a bit. I'd make sure the storyline is well paced with sub-arcs overlapping eachother. A major thing is that before content is epic you need to fist hear about it, subtly at first, then more often, and only after a while possibly get confronted yourself.

For example: Glint. While I haven't played GW1 hearing about these bits of lore makes me curious. Build on that a bit by subtly making references to her, then make things something happen but don't explain it. It might have to do with her, maybe not. Maybe weird unseen mobs will start attacking from portals, maybe certain structures will be demolished, NPC's kidnapped, or people start acting weird. All of this could already start happening during a previous event so it overlaps and you don't know whether or not what LS sub-arc it's part of. When building something subtly you can then plan surprises along the way. Maybe Logan gets so obsessed with keeping the queen safe that he drives himself to the brink of a mental breakdown and starts ordering the Seraph to put Divinities Reach on lockdown, then it seems like he's being controlled by some force that has taken Glint's power and is after her child. All sorts of crazy stuff could happen.

They tried to do the epic buildup with Zhaitan, however they don't give players a reason to care; you only see him at the very last moment. It's his risen that do the work for him so there's a disconnect, even if they say that he controls them directly. Then in comes Trahearne with his bland voice which really doesn't help the player to care about whats happening. The whole story starts with something relating to your character, then all of a sudden it's like "ok your stuff is done now, but wait there's this dragon right, and he's doing things we don't like so you're going to help us now". If they had dropped hints of Zhaitan in from the very start, making him look bigger and badder that would have certainly helped. And use direct avatars; small versions of him that try pop up and try to kill you and/or NPCs you care about. How about an instance where he chases you from the sky and you need to take cover and run to get to a safe place while the level behind you gets covered in risen crap, killing a few of your fellow NPCs and turning them into risen that proceed to chase you as well. That sort of thing.

Another example: Scarlett. They made a nice backstory to her but that was after she was plonked into the game and presented out of nowhere. If you want a character like that to work you need to make her motives understandable to the player, make her an actual anti-villain. Again build her up subtly, maybe she contacts players to learn from them, or ask for their help in procuring something. At first she seems cool but then you get these glimpses of there's something wrong with her. Only when players are familiar with her drop the bomb and show that she's been using everyone, then all hell breaks loose.

I'm hoping to see more Brent Weeks-like quality character building and writing in general. He's a god at characters and writing stories about people pulling themselves from dark evil places, or descending into them.

Remember the War in Kryta in GW1? Permament. You could start it when you wanted after you beat Prophecies so it still made sense. It was a world in a chronological order rather than this "living" world. I'd definitely add permanency.

Then I'd add a new area people WANT to see with a story that actually matters. I'd slowly open up the Crystal Desert and Glint's shrine and, for those that haven't read the books, a cinematic of what happened back then. A PROPER cinematic. Not this faded piece of scenery behind two people talking while some unseen event is going on that they're narrating.

Hah, they've pretty much all but stopped using those, since even Anet realizes how terrible they are, flame and frost had some proper (but short) cinematics so hopefully we'll see more of those

I would dial back the stories to dealing with individuals or groups instead of nation- worldwide threats.

That would contrast the living story well with the "bigger picture" of the dragon threat (which I would save for expansions). That doesnt mean you cannot have dragon-related threats in the living story. Quite the opposite, you can foreshadow, introduce characters that will be important for the next personal story arc (coming in the expansion).

It creates a more realistic world if smaller stories happen all over that touch different people, instead of everything being connected to one big bad (be it a dragon or that lame excuse for a villain, Scarlet).

I would make sure the majority of the living story creates permanent additions (or changes) to the world. Southsun for all the flaws it has did this well. The Lost Shores story line played out over say 2 months would be a great example of what I have in mind. Building and holding each outpost and the roads and bridges would be a week long effort of different tasks that can succeed or fail (and re-attempts), so while the end result is southsun as it stands now, how long your server takes for that story arc is up to them. Maybe make the allied npc force stronger each week until they auto-complete to make sure all servers still have the same zone in the end as the foundation for later stories.

I would make it a point to change existing zone-wide "threats" in a way that turns them from nuisances into actual threats. Lost towns or villages and waypoints cannot be taken back by 2 people in 5 minutes, it requires a string of events *per camp" to complete the meta to free the highlands and drive the centaurs back. Through that, it takes at least a whole day or maybe two to completely flip the zone. As part of that change I would give people reason to care for the zone being saved (vendors with special goods at the last camp etc).

That means players cannot have everything they want at any time, it depends on the circumstances in the world and the zone. I realize this is a disadvantage for players compared to now, but my opinion is that something like that is needed to make people actually care about whats happening around them. Nobody cares about saving the village anymore since they know they can solo-flip it in 5 minutes later that day. look at the interest that an open temple of Balthazar creates (on my server anyway). Nobody gives a damn about Dwayna except those that farm events for the rares. But Balthazar being won draws attention because 1) its difficult and it can fail, so it doesnt happen all the time 2) it makes something readily available that you can only get through limited means otherwise. Bugs aside I think that is a good design foundation.

I'm assuming that ANET is going to release 4 expansions over the lifetime of GW2 to address each of the elder dragons. Therefore, if Living Story is just filler, and has nothing to do with the ED, then I want the living story to explore the relationship between the races. Maybe the Charr want more territory, maybe the Sons of Svanir make a push to take over Hoelbrak and the surrounding zones. Or perhaps the Asura make a venture into underground passages to find more Asuran cities. Just anything that introduces permanent changes that we can actually see and affect future gameplay.

The trouble with 'Living World' is that it's effectively a misnomer. It's a chronological sequence of very narrowly-focused events happening in a world that is, on the whole, quite static. Take the recent invasions, for example - they happen, but the NPCs and mobs and events in the maps they happen in do not react at all to the invasion.

When ArenaNet said they'd be implementing a living world, what came to my mind (and was actually mentioned several times during production when devs were referencing the way they'd developed the dynamic event system) was the static maps changing in ways that were relevant to those maps. The everyday dynamic event chains that happen in Queensdale, for example, would develop over time. New, simple events would be added to these maps from time to time. The endless, repetitive cycles of old event chains that have long grown stale progress to the next logical step in the cycle.

Maybe some new travelling merchants try to settle in a relatively unpopulated area and irritate the local wildlife. Maybe the farmers get fed up of their cows being killed/stolen and sell the land to a shady asura who starts developing some kind of machine that pollutes the water and mutates all the fish. Maybe the apple pie lady's apple pies become so famous that she gathers a crowd that fall victim to the spider infestation, and with their new influx of flesh foodsource the spiders take up residence in a new cave nearby and the apple pie tourists frequently need to be rescued from there. Then next month, experimental asuran pest control gets called in and that mini cave becomes a mini dungeon with a big spider queen at the end of it. And none of this gets gigantic fanfare and is just there for people to discover as they explore maps.

In order for the world to feel alive, the non-fanfare, everyday goings on of Tyria need to be given attention. The big fanfare stuff covered in the Living World so far are just episodes in a bigger, thus far poorly-told story - they don't actually bring the ~world~ to life. And apparently your everyday inhabitant of Tyria doesn't particularly know or care about them. If the static maps changed on even a monthly basis, repeating them on your fifth alt would not be such a chore. I recently finished a map I hadn't done before, and the sheer, unadultered joy of exploration in doing so reminded me of how crappy the achievement-grinding shallow Living World saga truly is in comparison to the game's core gameplay.

TL;DR: If I were in charge of the Living World, I would be apportioning resources to develop the everyday event chains and meta-events going on in the standard maps to enhance the core GW2 gameplay, and ensure that players get to see and discover new things more frequently when they are just playing the normal PvE game.

That being said, here is how I would make it dynamic and make it better:

1. First, I would use the WvW platform and use that to create new geographical locations for the living story. Why? Because, now you can create conflict that isn't just AI conflict. Now, you have the ability for people to pick sides and pit them against each other in various struggles that allows the players to control the outcome, instead of some underpaid writer with a bag full of cliches.

2. I would use the multiple guild system and build upon the alliance part of it. I would make it so that people could create political structures, secret organizations, guilds, or any other kind of interesting "organization" that could exist. People could be in as many as they want. And I would get rid of the silly "represent" mechanic except for maybe using capes or something, but certainly not to give reputation points or any of that garbage.

3. I would greatly expand upon the alliance/guild system and create new geographical locations that guilds/alliances can be conquered and controlled - or lost. Each of these areas would have various materials that are only found in those areas and can be used to build various things - such as the siege weapons for WvW, but much more complex and interesting that what we have now.

I guess that is my opinion for allowing real living story stuff to happen. Now, the developers could create NPC factions or find ways to pit alliances against each other, or do a multitude of things that allow people to actually be part of and create their own living stories. I know, it sounds very much like a sandbox. That's because it is. Living story and theme park style MMO's just don't seem like a good pair. If you want something really living, where players can actually change the events and shape the future of the game, then you need to make more of a sandbox to play in - and WvW has an incredibly good foundation for this to occur.

Last: I would create a hall of monuments for each alliance. In this hall of monuments, you would be able to read and watch the history of the alliance, battles, important events, many things would be recorded, both as written word and through actual recording of the game play in certain instances. I would then make those monuments public for all to visit, or at least partially public. Then, I would create a system of armor and weapons or other wearable items that reflect the successes of alliances - similar to the gold and silver capes from GvG winners in GW1, but much more robust. Of course, everything would be cosmetic.

When ArenaNet said they'd be implementing a living world, what came to my mind (and was actually mentioned several times during production when devs were referencing the way they'd developed the dynamic event system) was the static maps changing in ways that were relevant to those maps. The everyday dynamic event chains that happen in Queensdale, for example, would develop over time. New, simple events would be added to these maps from time to time. The endless, repetitive cycles of old event chains that have long grown stale progress to the next logical step in the cycle.

...

TL;DR: If I were in charge of the Living World, I would be apportioning resources to develop the everyday event chains and meta-events going on in the standard maps to enhance the core GW2 gameplay, and ensure that players get to see and discover new things more frequently when they are just playing the normal PvE game.

I think they had that in mind. As late as November I think there was talk of continous small additions to existing zones in the form of new event chains, which would diminish the frequency of those we already know. The October and November patches do this justice by adding either alot of content to old zones or adding entirely new zones.

When they formulated the Living Story, all those plans were discarded. unfortunately so, because permanently enhancing all the zones would be a better investment in the future of the game then these bi-weekly circus shows. All we can do is voice is opinion and hope (or quit the game).

Ah finally some ideas about the real GW 2.
Jormag is up to no good again. Kralkatorrik is turning the desert into a real Crystal Desert. Primordius is sending his forces out in the Maguma Waste. Bubbles has caused a tidal wave high enough to flood the entire Shing Jea Island.